Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a physiologist by training but a writer at heart. I spent 18 years teaching science and medicine undergraduates at St Andrews University, but now I’m using all that knowledge to work out how to kill people (just in my books!).
I’ve been an inveterate stationery addict since I was a child, and I have a considerable stash of fountain pens, ink and notebooks! These come in useful though, as I tend to write longhand when I’m planning a book rather than type things. My shelves are full of notebooks of ideas, sketches, character notes and pictures from magazines which I use for inspiration.
While I was working at St Andrews, I was involved with two Scottish Government funded projects, working with the College of Medicine in Blantyre, Malawi. While out in Malawi, I learned about the plight of the many street children there and helped to set up a Community Based Organisation that works with homeless Malawian children to support them through education and training – Chimwemwe Children’s Centre. It was this experience that helped to shape the Malawian aspects in my first novel, The Wrong Kind of Clouds.
I live in Scotland with my husband, where I spend my days writing, walking and running. “The Wrong Kind of Clouds” is my first novel to be published, but I’ve written a number of other books. Hopefully they’ll be getting published too!
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest book is called “The Wrong Kind of Clouds”. It follows Summer Morris as she tries to find out what has happened to her ex-lover, Patrick Forrester.
Someone wants Patrick dead. Actually, LOTS of people want Patrick dead, but someone has taken him hostage. As he’s being bundled into the back of a van, he manages to call Summer and begs her to help him. In order to find him alive, she needs to understand why people want him dead.
One of the strands in the book is set in Malawi and covers a potential child-trafficking ring. The child-trafficking strand is loosely based on a real case that I heard about while I was out there. My experiences in Malawi helped me to know what the streets and the language are like out there too; what it’s like to live in Malawi – the challenges, the joys etc.
The original idea for the book came from me wondering how far you would go to help someone you didn’t like. What would make you try and help? Your own humanity? The fact the other person might die? What would make you walk away? The book kind of grew out of that.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I suppose writing longhand in fountain pen might be considered unusual these days – most people type more than they write by hand. But for me, the ideas flow better when I’m writing by hand and I remember where my notes on different things are in the notebook better than if I was typing them into a computer and then trying to find them later.
I also drink vast amounts of tea while I’m writing! And I talk to the cat quite a lot (though he doesn’t actually offer much help!).
What authors, or books have influenced you?
I grew up reading all sorts of different things which I suppose must have influenced me, even if it doesn’t feel obvious. I read a lot of Agatha Christie as a child and James Herriot and Gerald Durrell. In later years I read a wide variety of things and despite not being the target audience, I love Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy. Other authors whose books I’ve really enjoyed include the Danish writer Karin Alvtegen, Susan Hill, Val McDermid, Kazuo Ishiguro and Elly Griffiths.
What are you working on now?
I’m just finishing the final edit on what I hope will be the next book to be published – another suspense/thriller novel called “Poisonous Minds”. Once I’ve done that, I’ll be completing the sequel to “The Wrong Kind of Clouds” or working on another thriller called “Trust Nobody”.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
To be honest, I’ve found word of mouth one of the best things. When people have read and enjoyed the book, they tend to talk about it and suggest to their friends that they read it. The other thing that has worked for me is to do a price-drop and advertise it as widely as possible. It’s hard to say which of those sites has brought me the most success – it may well be the combination of them all.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Keep at it! It’s hard going at times. If you can find a writing buddy or join a Facebook group that supports writers, they can really help you with all sorts of things, from good cover design, to advice about how to approach a publisher, to making you smile on a tough day. Writing might not be the easiest job, but it can be enormously fulfilling and fun.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
You only have one life. Try and be happy in it.
What are you reading now?
The Gargoyle – Andrew Davidson.
I’ve read it before and adored it (but I recognise it’s not everyone’s thing!)
What’s next for you as a writer?
I’ll be trying to get “Poisonous Minds” published.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
Ooh, am I really only allowed 3 or 4? That’s tough. Can I count Patrick Ness’s Chaos Walking trilogy as one book? (I’m sure you can get it in one giant volume). Probably Jane Eyre (by Charlotte Bronte) would have to be on the list. For the 3rd? Maybe something I’ve never read but probably should have – War and Peace – Leo Tolstoy perhaps.
Author Websites and Profiles
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